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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Early Snow, North Lake

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Aspens and Early Snow, North Lake

Aspens and Early Snow, North Lake. Sierra Nevada, California. October 4, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An early autumn snow fall dusts the ridge above the aspen groves at North Lake, Sierra Nevada, California.

Another photograph from my early October 2008 visit to the Bishop Creek area. On the first morning I left Bishop very early, waiting only long enough for the local Starbucks to open. (There I admired a couple of Vern Clevenger photos hanging on the wall – his gallery is next door – and saw a few other bleary-eyed photographers getting some much-needed coffee.) Although the weather was clear in Bishop, it began to cloud up as I drove up toward North Lake. When I arrived before sunrise it was cloudy there, but it looked the conditions might be good for some early morning aspen photography.

But not for long. Almost as soon as I took my gear out of the car the wind came up, the temperature dropped and it began to rain and then snow. I quickly holed up in my car to wait it out, and an hour later the sun began to emerge in between the light snow showers. This well known grove of aspens on the far side of the lake climbs a valley toward the ridge. Although many leaves came down quickly in the wind as the front passed, there was still a lot of color in the grove. Here there is still light snow falling on the ridge, even as sunlight slants in from the right.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Leaves, North Lake

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Aspen Leaves, North Lake

Aspen Leaves at North Lake. Sierra Nevada, California. October 5, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful autumn aspen leaves at North Lake, California.

After being snowed on at North Lake the previous morning, I returned again on this day and concentrated on photographing aspen leaves, branches, and trunks in a grove along the side of the lake and near the famous “tree tunnel” that so many have photographed here.

To add one point… while I love the color and light of the large aspen groves and love to photograph their astonishing colors as well, I think I have come to prefer photographing the smaller details of these groves: a few leaves, some branches, perhaps against a background containing some rocks or trees that have lost their leaves.

keywords: colorful, fall, autumn, foliage, leaves, aspen, grove, forest, red, orange, yellow, gold, trunk, branch, north, lake, califoria, usa, bishop, creek, nature, stock, sierra, nevada, range, mountains

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, Bishop Creek

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Aspen Grove, Bishop Creek

Aspen Grove, Bishop Creek. Sierra Nevada, California. October 4, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fall colors in an aspen grove near the south fork of Bishop Creek.

This photograph was made in a bit of an odd place. While driving up the road to South Lake along the south fork of Bishop Creek, I spotted an unmarked gravel side road and decided to check it out. The short road traveled parallel to the main roadway, but it went through a thick grove of small aspen trees – so I stopped and spent a half hour in the early evening photographing these trees close up.

keywords: fall, autumn, aspen, tree, forest, grove, color, gold, yellow, orange, white, trunk, branch, grass, landscape, nature, bishop, creek, california, usa, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, stock, foliage

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Two Pelicans, Sunset Glow

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Two Pelicans, Sunset Glow

Two Pelicans, Sunset Glow. South of San Francisco, California. September 2, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two pelicans fly over the golden sunset light of the California Pacifica ocean coastline south of San Francisco.

On September 3, 2008 my son and I drove over the hill to Santa Cruz late in the day and headed north along the Pacific Coast on Highway 1. I had several possible subjects in mind, but when they didn’t quite pan out I decided to go for an old standby – park along the top of the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean and wait for seabirds to fly past on the updraft from the ocean wind. We weren’t disappointed! Many birds were doing their commute up and down the coast, including lots of gulls and several impressive flocks of pelicans.

As the birds come by I begin by trying to get focus on one or more of them, and then I (attempt to) pan smoothly as they pass by. Because it was just before sunset on this evening the light varied tremendously as the birds came past, ranging from fairly flat blue light when shooting to the south to this amazingly saturated gold (or orange?) light when the sun and ocean and distant fog bank were right behind the birds. The color of this light is real – I shot in RAW mode and use the “as shot” setting during the conversion. Hard to believe, I know…

keywords: two, pelicans, sea, bird, ocean, coast, shore, pelagic, pacific, california, usa, wildlife, nature, landscape, orange, yellow, gold, sunset, evening, central, san francisco, santa cruz, stock